Any tips for making Ricotta Cheesecake?

[housewolf]

Silly me, I promised a fresh Ricotta cheesecake to someone at work in spite of never having made one with ricotta before. I can make wonderfully smooth cream cheese cheesecake, but expect ricotta to be different in some way.

Anybody got any tips on how to a smooth ricotta cheesecake? Right now I've got the fresh ricotta draining, but what else do I need to know?

Thanks...

[The empressof all]

1. Ricotta cake is by nature a bit grainy

I don't think I've ever had one that was creamy smooth. Maybe process it with the egg---Don't know---

[hippywife]

2. I've never made one, either, but

I really trust the info on this website:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/RicottaCheesecakewithCran-RaspberrySauce.html

Good luck, sweetie! Aw, what am I saying. I know it will be awesome if you're making it. :hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I have a recipe for it, but can't find it .....

It is an Italian recipe that my mother wrote down for me. I've only made it a few times. My ex wife made it and did nearly as good a job as my mother did.

Whle I don't have the recipe, I can tell you that it is grainy. While it can be called 'cheesecake' because .... well ..... it is made with cheese, it isn't like a New York cheesecake. It is a very different product.

[housewolf]

4. Was it grainy even made with fresh ricotta?

Cooks Illustrated says their recipe is smooth... made with fresh ricotta. Guess I'll find out!

Hey, H2S, did you go to see Obama yesterday????? If so, what was it like?

[Stinky The Clown]

5. It was always made with fresh ricotta and it was always grainy

I have not seen the CI recipe, but I recall for sure that the one we made was very simple .... by that, I mean no food processors or such. The crust was made in the Kitchenaid in later years, but the filling was always mixed simply - by hand.

No, we have decided not to go to DC.

Our relatives, who were coming (even bought airline tickets) got scared at the estimates of 5 million, and so have postponed their visits.

I was okay when we would have been our own crowd.

The cold weather and crowd control measures scared me when it got to just Sparkly and me (very cold, lack of toilets, and if the worst happened, how long would help take?). That said, I was watching the concert today and was pretty pissed at myself. Today would have been VERY do-able for us. There are bigger crowds on the 4th of July when we go to The Wall.

[housewolf]

8. Thanks for the info

I'm just gonna do one and see how it turns out... I told my friend at work that it's an experiement since I've made plenty of cream cheese cheesecakes but never a ricotta one, so we'll just have to see. She's remembering a NY ricotta cheesecake that she says was creamy, not grainy... so we'll just see what I come up with! :)

[lizerdbits]

10. I tried one from CI and it was grainy BUT

I don't think I let the cheese drain long enough (it said 8 hours). Usually I have great results with CIs recipes so I'm inclined to think it was me. I'm interested to see if it works for you.

[Tesha]

6. from "Joy"

For this recipe I have combined the best of both worlds, ricotta and cream cheese, to produce a cheesecake that is both light and fluffy (from the ricotta) and wonderfully creamy (from the cream cheese).

When I think of sweet baking with ricotta - I think ricotta pie... dense and rich, not smooth and creamy - maybe a little grainy, but in a nice way..

[housewolf]

7. Ah, we have differnt versions of "Joy of Cooking"...

In mine, she says she got the recipe from Jim Beard, and it's all ricotta.

Guess I'll just sort of wing it, with the help of all the recipes I have, and see how it turns out! I've talked to her about this being an experiment, so we'll just see how it turns out. Wish me luck!

[hippywife]

9. Tesha is quoting from the link

that I posted from the Joy of Baking website.

Good luck and report back! :hi:

[housewolf]

11. Oh how funny! Here I thought she meant the "Joy of Cooking" cookbook! LOL!

Duh!!!!! It never occured to me that she meant the "Joy of Baking" site! I did check out Stephanie's recipe there, but I my friend was talking about an all-ricotta cheesecake, so that's what I went with.

It's in the oven now. I over-beat the egg whites, and they were the last of my eggs so I used them anyway, I expect it will be pretty bumpy looking. I've never used whipped egg whites before in cheesecake, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And I used the new mixer which whipped up those suckers in way less time that I would have thought, so... And what with the whipped egg whites, the volume is more than I expected, so there's more batter than would fit in the pan I prepared... so now I have to make up several small ones to use up the batter. Lessons for the next time...

[grasswire]

12. today I made a ricotta cheese pie, and it was grainy

I beat the drained ricotta with three eggs and some sugar and orange zest, baked it in an eggy crust that I use for German cheesecake, topped it with sliced fresh strawberries and an orange marmalade glaze. I haven't tasted it yet, but I did taste the ricotta and know that it was grainy.

H2S, I would love to have the recipe for Italian cheesecake if you find it some day. I have seen a lot of beautiful ones on the Internets but there's something about a hand-to-hand recipe, yanno?